Row felt pretty good in this, it was only 800m each, and so we all had a good go at smashing it. I’m not sure how quickly we did it, but it was a good lung burner.

Tabata was fine too, managed to get my swing going for double unders again, chaining 30 in a row for the first 20 second stint. Most of the others were more like 10-20, with one round I only managed 4, so consistency still isn’t there, but I haven’t lost them completely.Deadlift round I started with 6 reps for the first 3 rounds, and 4 for the remaining 5 rounds. We were recommended to go just over 50% of our 1RM for this, so I chose 60kg.I really struggled with the toes-to-bar though, only managing a maximum of 6 in a 20 second round, but with most only managing 2 or 3 proper reps. Speed is definitely something I need to work on with all kipping motions as I can only really do one at a time at the moment, stopping the momentum at the bottom of the swing, then starting it again.

It was just a quick one yesterday, as we had visitors from Crossfit CF31 at the box and they needed to get moving quickly. The guys from the Bridgend box started a mission on Friday evening to do a WOD at every box in Wales over the weekend to raise money for Velindre, a local cancer care charity. By the time they go to us at 8:30 Sunday morning they had already completed 11 WODs in the previous day and a half, and after they had finished at Celtic Crossfit they had another 7 WODs to do that day. Absolute kudos to them all, they are total machines, and they smashed it, and kept on smiling. Hope you raised a fortune!This contributed to a fantastic turnout and atmosphere for an early Sunday morning class, you can see the numbers below. What a great start to the day!

As far as the actual workout was concerned I decided to scale the thrusters to 25kg, which was probably the right choice, as doing 50 of these as quickly as possible was HARD! So hard in fact that I couldn’t face pull ups after, and made a last minute decision to do jumping ring pull ups as a scale. In hindsight I’m mortified that I bailed on the pull ups, but my arms were so dead after the thrusters I may well have still been on the bar now, 24 hours after the workout started.

I don’t think I’ve ever trained sprints before, and it showed. My legs were like jelly after these finished, and my groin and calves are really tight still, the morning after. I should get the foam roller out this evening I think.

I’m pleased I finished the workout under the time cap, in 8 minutes. Double unders were chaining fairly well, which really helped. I did however scale the weight on the thrusters to 30kg. Rx was 60kg which I knew I was nowhere near achieving. My lack of strength is definitely my ahem….weakness.

Ah the press, I hate the press. I just cannot seem to get any stronger at it, in fact I have lost strength. Looking at my diary I have completed 3x5 @ 35kg a few months ago, but that just wasn’t happening last night. I guess I need more food!!!

I was a bit nervous about the thrusters last night, my quads and groin still hadn’t recovered properly since the sprints last week! Even on the warm up jog everything felt tight and painful. I made sure I stretched these out quite a bit beforehand, and it actually went ok. Rx was 60kg, but there was not a chance of that happening. I went for 25kg and finished in 9:30. I was considering going at 30kg, but at the last minute dropped down, and I’m glad of that. The work capacity is definitely there these days, and technique is improving on all the gymnastic movements and most of the lifts, but my strength is still not improving.

I love barbell club, I’ve said it before, but I love it. I like spending time getting used to the technique, and I learn something new every session. Last night I feel my pulls were all fine getting the bar up, but the usual issue raised it’s head of getting under the bar into the catch position quickly. As I wasn’t raising the weight each time this did improve with each lift and I felt more confident with each set. Slowly but surely I am getting towards the proper snatch technique, and once I have that then I can start to think about increasing the weight on the bar.

Front squats tonight felt weak! Recently I did 3 x 3 at 60kg, so thought I’d have a go at 65kg, but it felt heavy, really heavy and I dumped the bar at the bottom of the squat. I have no idea why it felt so heavy! I went back and did 60kg, but form was crap, so went 50 and 55 for the 2nd and 3rd sets, which were both fine. Utterly frustrating!!

I was chatting to my training partner for the night about how I’m just not gaining any strength at the moment, and he suggested the mass gainer powders. I mentioned that it was whey based, and I was a vegan and he was gob-smacked, jokingly suggesting that is why I’m losing strength. Even bringing the coach into the conversation. To be fair, I am the weakest, skinniest guy at the box, but I was just as weak and skinny before going vegan, just with some added belly fat. These are exactly the sort of preconceptions I really want to break with my training and veganism, but I am obviously struggling. In fairness to the guys, neither were outright telling me I was wrong in my choice, or stupid, etc, and any knocking on it was completely from a friendly ribbing banter point of view, and I’m more than happy to laugh along with that, as I know at the moment I am completely fitting the stereotype of the skinny vegan….it’s just made me all the more determined…..which reminds me, it’s second breakfast time

More working on squat form rather than trying to get PRs here. I stuck at 70kg, and really tried to make sure that my knees stayed out and chest was up on each rep. Mostly I got there, with the odd little slip. Coach Ffred suggested I tried a wider foot stance, which I think did help, but felt weird. I’ll keep trying this and see if I can get used to it.

I was going to go for a mix of Rx and level 1 on this WOD, as I wanted to use a 16kg kettlebell, but I got talked into doing it Rx, and I’m really glad I did! 24kg felt heavy, but totally doable, the hardest part was the box jumps and I didn’t managed to chain any of these together, just doing slow and steady singles. 150 double unders were frustrating, as I couldn’t seem to get more than 10-20 in a chain, but against all odds I finished the workout just ten seconds short of the time cap, which I was chuffed to beans with. Fist bumps to my training partner for the day, Andy.

A great session last night, I really enjoyed it. I used the skills session to try and get my first chest-to-bar pull up, rather than going for a max amount of reps on kipping pull ups. I’m now very close each time, there must be millimeters in it! The second to last rep I did actually feel my chest touch the bar, finally!!!! That’s my first PR in a while, and I hope that next time I try I can get a couple more in.

The power snatches were supposed to be at 40kg for level 1, but again I really want to make sure my form is good before bumping the weight up too high in a WOD environment. I dropped it to 35kg, which I think was the right choice. It never felt too easy, but it wasn’t so hard that I started to get sloppy with form. The pistol variants I did was where my trailing foot was flat on the floor behind me. This felt easy with my right leg, but still difficult with the left. I’m glad I learned these pistol progressions though, it’s something I can practise at home to build up the strength I need in both legs to do these properly.

Slightly different last night, there was no lift/skills session as the WOD had a lot of heavy lifting in. I opted for level 1 @ 80kg on the deadlift, level 2 was 100kg and Rx was 120kg, which is too heavy. At 80kg I could maintain solid form, but it was still hard.

The endurance part of the WOD wasn’t as bad as I initially thought, mainly due to the 1:1 rest, meaning for me it was over 4 minutes of rest time in between runs. It wasn’t so long back that even at this amount of rest I’d be struggling to do this, but I felt ready to go at the beginning of each round, and was pleased with my times. I probably could have gone faster, and for the last 200m of the last round I really tried to empty the tank of any remaining fuel.

All surprisingly great fun though, considering how rubbish I am at any sports, and how much I still struggle with nearly all the movements we do in Crossfit, I thoroughly enjoy every session.

WOD:Row 1km (between you and partner)Run 1 mileFinished in around 15 minutes

I had to go for level 1 on this WOD, as the bar was to be power cleaned into position, and level 2 was 70kg. I don’t think I could have completed one round of even the front squats at this weight, let alone cleaning on top. The 50kg was a struggle, but doable and I mostly kept form throughout, so I chose the correct weight there. Burpee box jumps didn’t cause any issues, I could have recycled them faster, but to be frank I was mostly putting off getting back on the bar.

The WOD was supposed to be row 1km and run 1 mile for time without a partner, but the class was so busy we had to split the row down, which after strength session I was grateful for. I was told by my mate Justin that my row form is good, I generally just try to keep the chain straight at all times, keep my back straight and use my back and legs for power, however I could also put more power into each pull to get more bang for my buck on the form. It was nice to have the compliment I have to say.

Big up to my training partner for the night Ellis, who has just got back from getting married in Crete to Miriam, and hit the workout hard tonight, looking really strong on the front squats.

I am umming and ahhing at the moment again whether I need to bring in a secondary progressive strength training programme to do alongside, or instead of a couple of the WODs each week. I do trust the programming of the coaches at Celtic, but my strength has plateaued for some time now, and I do wonder if an auxiliary programme might help. I know this would be fine if I could make the classes more times each week, up to 5, but at the moment I’m only getting there 3 times at most, which is hindering me I think. I’ll have a chat to one of them next time I’m there and see what they recommend.

My evening meal yesterday was roughly twice the size of my usual one, but my girlfriend was out so I had free reign to stuff my face, and it felt good!

As of today I'm looking to swap out the afternoon snacks for a mass gainer shake. I got the recipe from this forum, and made it up last night. According to myfitnesspal it's around 565 calories with 72g carbs, 18g fat and 27g protein. I think I can quite easily bump this up by another 100 calories and another 10g of protein, but I'll see how it goes to start with, I don't want to put on weight too quickly, but I do want to gain strength and so need the fuel.

First workout since upping my calories by having a homemade mass gainer shake and at first I thought I was a little full to be working out, despite having the shake 3 hours before training, but it actually worked out really well, and I felt FUELLED!!!

Stuck at 50kg for the hang power clean and jerk, as any higher and my form would go, and it was shaky even at 50kg. I was getting the bar up no problems, but my foot positioning for the split jerk wasn’t the best and I was sometimes a bit wobbly. Still, 50kg is a 10kg increase on the last time I did this.

The WODs felt good, I decided to give ring dips a try as I’ve never done them in a WOD before, and I was surprised that I could do them. The first round was unbroken, but the second two rounds were split into 3 and 2. Some work still required on them, but it’s another improvement. The first 2 power cleans I accidentally did as squat cleans, which felt good, but I switched to power cleans for speed purposes. My technique felt good for these and I could definitely feel the hip connection with the bar helping.

The second WOD didn’t have a hugely heavy deadlift weight, so I thought I’d Rx it, seeing as my double unders are of a reasonable standard. 60kg felt fine, and the 10 reps were unbroken for the first 3 rounds, and split 5/5 for the second two, but I think with a bit more mental strength I could have done these unbroken too and maybe got another round in.

All in all a great evening at the box, and I came away feeling I’d accomplished something.

I have extreme noise terror in my running play list and as a radio station on Pandora. I find death metal, industrial metal and hardcore punk to be a the best way to kick off my morning and my run. LOL, I get up at 4am so sometimes it pisses off the neighbors.

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